"I was going to ruin Mother's Day for Elizabeth." Little Sister #49 Karen's Stepmother

As I mentioned before, I chose this out of a fairly big stack of Little Sisters at the thrift store. I picked it for one reason only: I am a stepmother myself. I wanted to see what Karen says about Superwoman Thomas-Brewer, since, for the most part, they get along pretty well. Usually, stepmothers are made out to be evil bitches--I'm not, I swear!--and I hate the whole cliche about it. That said, this book was really stupid and completely bought into the "evil stepmother" garbage. (Also, I took no notes. This book was so painful to read that I just skimmed through last few chapters.)



This starts off with Karen and Andrew's new custody arrangements of every other month at the "big house." This month is May. Elizabeth comes into Karen's room and tells her that now she and Andrew will be actually living there for an extended time, they'll have chores to do, and doing these chores will give them an allowance. Karen's chores are: making her bed every morning, keeping her room neat, taking care of Emily Junior, and sorting the recyclables so Charlie can take them to the recycling center. Karen says no prob and clears out.

The first morning she's at the big house, she almost oversleeps. She throws on whatever clothes she can find and runs down to breakfast, where Elizabeth criticizes: Karen's choice of breakfast (no fruit with her cereal), choice of clothes (clashing patterns), and choice of hair ribbon (clashing color, bow not big enough). Karen tells her: she knows what to eat, she likes her clothes, and she likes her ribbon to hang down in the back, without a bow. When Karen gets home from school, Elizabeth chews her out for not making her bed or cleaning her room. And not sorting the recyclables. Because Karen didn't sort them, Charlie couldn't take them to the recycling center. Um, darn? [I got the impression that Karen had to sort them every day so Charlie could take them every day. God forbid an empty milk jug and a few newspapers sit around for a few days.]

Things go on like this until Elizabeth and Karen are at each others' throats. Karen's so mad at Elizabeth that she *gasp* doesn't want to spend Mother's Day with her! Karen and Andrew spend Saturday with their mother, and when she drops them off at the big house, Karen tells her that she got permission to go back to the little house the next day. Which, of course, if a big fat lie. [Side note: My husband's custody arrangements are this: his ex-wife has visitation on Mother's Day, whether she has actual custody or not. She normally doesn't, and since she lives 1,000 miles away, it's pretty much a moot point. The same goes for Father's Day, hubs has visitation, etc.]

Of course, Karen gets busted for lying, and gets a lecture from Daddy. And Mommy. And Elizabeth. And Nannie. And Kristy. Blah blah blah.

Finally, Elizabeth says that she'll try not to criticize so much, and instead, just make "suggestions." Karen agrees, and says she'll try harder to do her chores. By the time she's used to doing the chores, it's time to go back to the little house.

Subpar Subplot: The neighborhood kids are all building go-carts. Karen and Andrew are building one themselves, as are David Michael, Bill Korman, Linny Papadakis, Timmy Hsu, and a bunch of others. Karen and Andrew's first attempt is a joke, and their rebuilt, CO2-powered second one wins the race. Just kidding, they didn't win it wasn't CO2-powered.

Kristy's chore was vacuuming. Yeah, I know.

I don't know what else to say about this book. I don't really have continuity issues or WTF moments for it. It was really stupid and I wish I hadn't wasted a quarter on it. Well, kind of a continuity issue: They adopted Emily on Mother's Day weekend, a year ago, and Karen says that Emily's two and a half. So wouldn't she be three and half then? I'm not sure if I really care.

Only redeeming moment of this book? Kristy tells Karen she's being an "enormous brat."